From a Eurekalert press release, it seems the polar bears just aren’t doing the job anymore: “Communicators need to move away from the traditional images of polar bears or fear-laden imagery to find new, inspirational motifs to engage people with climate change.”
Beyond polar bears? Experts look for a new vision of climate change to combat skepticism
Climate change is about more than just polar bears. That is the message from Dr Kate Manzo whose research into climate change communication has been published in Meteorological Applications. The research, which reviews the efforts of journalists, campaigners and politicians to engage the British public with climate change, explores how new ‘visual strategies’ can communicate climate change messages against a backdrop of increased climate scepticism.
“There have been various efforts to put a face on the climate change issue,” said Dr Manzo, from Newcastle University. “Communicators need to move away from the traditional images of polar bears or fear-laden imagery to find new, inspirational motifs to engage people with climate change. My research has uncovered a variety of possibilities – such as windmills as icons of renewable energy – as well as alternatives to documentary photography as the dominant form of climate change communication. Artists and cartoonists are among the producers of inspirational alternatives.”
“A recent study of American public perception showed that fewer people are convinced of the reality of climate change, and of those that are only 36% attribute it to human activity. This shows the variance of levels of climate change knowledge and understanding, which effects how people behave in response. It also highlights the need for strategies to boost the cognitive and behavioural elements of climate change engagement without resorting to methods such as fear appeals that are, at best, a double edged sword.”
In her study Manzo analysed the traditional standard bearing symbols of climate change, especially polar bears, which (like the images of the global poor that sometimes appear in relation to climate change) are traditionally cast as being ‘helpless’ and ‘stranded’ victims as their habitat changes around them.
The most famous example of a polar bear gaining iconic status is Knut, the cub from Berlin Zoo whose image was used so successfully for political and commercial campaigns that he became the biggest cash grossing animal of all time.
“Polar bears score highly in the so called identifiable victim stakes. Findings suggest that the image of a lone polar bear, like Knut, wins hands down in the affective stakes provoking feelings of pity and concern as well as charitable giving.”
But is it time for those communicating climate change messages to find a new motif? To answer this question Manzo studied recent charity campaigns, climate change photography and the framing of climate change articles in the press.
Dr Manzo suggests that icons of extreme weather and renewable energy are the standard alternatives to faces of climate change, with images such as windmills providing an inspirational approach to a climate change message which is inherently difficult to visualise.
“Visually pleasing images have indirect value when they allow organisations that use them to raise money for climate action and science. Icons of renewable energy, such as windmills, change the frame of reference from either business as usual or visions of apocalypse to possible strategies of mitigation.”
“All of these alternatives represent efforts to move beyond polar bears as the iconic representation of climate change and the visual sign of the so called ‘age of the melt,'” concludes Manzo. “The challenge is to use visuals creatively in ways that can address all three aspects of climate change communication, i.e. cognition, affect and behaviour, without enhancing a sense of fatalism and disengagement.”
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All of this sounds like the PR crap being produced by the churches in the 60’s and 70’s as the believers were just not coming in the doors as they did before. They never have recovered, these Alarmists probably won’t either, since “Mother Nature” has this obstinate attitude about her, the one that simply ignores the faithful.
For years, the acronymic interpretation was Piled Higher and Deeper.
Now perhaps its Pure Hypocrisy and Delusion, or
Publishes Hyperbole and Dementia, or
Persistent Hubris and Dilettantism, or…
Combine as required for desired effect.
Good Lord! Has anyone remembered to provide deicers on windmill blades? And something to catch the flung-off ice before it damages adjacent ‘mills? Quick, print more money!
Climatechange Truth: 14000 Wind Turbines Abandoned! – [ Traducir esta página ]
Check this out, there should be plenty of scope for taking photographs from this lot in california.
“Experts look for a new vision of climate change to combat skepticism”
Why don’t we proles believe these intellectuals? They can’t understand it? Neither can the Marxist intellectuals understand why we proles don’t rise up and start the revolution; they have to do it themselves.
The answer is simple, but unpalatable: the proles aren’t as stupid as the intellectuals.
Warmist; We need a new compaign, something visually impacting the way people think about global warming. What are the strongest images you could use to associate our message with?
Marketing Firm; Well, the images that evoke the strongest reaction in human beings are sexual.
W; Fine. Let’s go with that. Let’s look at some examples.
MF; Ok, we could do an ad with a bikini clad supermodel on the beach and a caption that global warming could force her to take even more of her clothes off…
W; …uhm…. no…. not quite the message we want. How about something more arctic related, that’s where almost all the warming has been and that’s the most fragile ecosystem there is.
MF; I thought it was fragile because it was cold?
W; Never mind that, have you got an image idea or not? Something sexy.
MF; Well… we could go with an attractive Eskimo woman in clad in traditional furs…
W; Yes! Yes! now we’re getting somewhere!
MF; With a caption that says global warming could make her switch to a bikini.
W; ….uhm…. no. Something sexy that men won’t see as a good thing. Can you do something with windmills? Something sexy?
MF; Hmmm…. could be a tough one. Windmills have this shape…
W; Towering above the landscape, majestic….
MF; …vaguely phalic. The size and shape intimidates men at the subconscious level.
W; Oh. But women would be attracted to them then, right? Great big phalic symbols….
MF; Studies indicate women say size doesn’t matter. I’ve confirmed with my wife.
W; But they’re still phalic…
MF; The spinny parts make them dizzy. And the whiney sounds remind them of children.
W; Skip sexy. How about cute and cuddly? But no polar bears.
MF; How about penguins?
W; Sure,penguins are cute.
MF; We could do something on those ones who are having a declining population…
W; Yes… cute… declining population…. I like it so far…
MF; Because the global warming has caused the ice sheet to grow forcing them to walk further from their breeding ground to get to their food source.
W; …uhm
MF; Hey, how does warming make the ice sheet grow anyway?
W; Never mind. We’ll stick witht polar bears.
“Alan F says:
[…]
off the bat as they indisputably DID in those oh so green EU member countries? Try reading less of the GE propaganda (be that published by themselves or the current incarnation of POTUS) and a bit more on what countries like Germany have already seen and documented regarding wind power. They haven’t stopped the expansion of such because they suddenly ran out of air movement within Germany’s borders.”
Sorry, some corrections: Wind turbines are still erected in Germany, just a few weeks ago i overtook a heavy goods convoy transporting the parts for a new one. Policy here is to control the growth of wind and solar power by reducing the feed in tariff for new installations. Prices for the technology come down, so the feed in tariff can be reduced (old installations still get the tariff that was in place at the moment they were built, guaranteed for 20 years).
The number of installations is still growing steadily (but not exponentially):
http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Installed_Wind_energy_(World,_EU,_Germany)_2000-2008.svg&filetimestamp=20090511090029
A lot of german economists have pointed out the costs and the obvious drawbacks. The political answer is to force other european nations like the UK into renewables as well and install a european supergrid of high voltage DC lines to compensate for the intermittance of wind and solar. Siemens and some other german companies are interested in building this infrastructure; they have a lot of political influence here. Smart grids and localized battery storage are also parts of this vision. Desertec, the Club Of Rome Germany initiative for thermal solar power in North Africa could be part of it.
This is the biggest european pork business after our usual agricultural subsidies. It’s really big. It won’t stop anytime soon, too many careers are built on it.
They could build the re-education camps by the Bird Blender Farms. “Free” access to power and protein.
Looks like they’ve managed to throw the bus (of global warmists) under the polar bears. Yum!
I just reclined for my monthly read of Wired Magazine, only to find a short article with the same theme of ceating more effective PR to promote the cause. I’ve seen such articles before, but it’s interesting to find them in such close juxtaposition in time. I wonder if this a short term trend, or a long term strategy? In other words, is it a weather change or a climate change?
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/st_essay_sciencepr/
Kate Manzo is a scary lady. I just did a quick google. She’s a “Big Time” Marxist propagandist who promotes the use of attacks from multiple disciplines focusing on indirect issues to destroy nationalism and property rights. She hates Western Civilization. She also knows nothing about climate science, but sees its trans-national nature as a wedge to destroy boarders. She is a “One World Government” true believer.
Wow, second non-scientist Marxist propagandist in two days.
Ah, the PoMo info wars. Spinmeisters search for the next meme-caine to numb the masses. Bright, shiny, roly-poly. “Two legs good, four legs better.” The People Are Stupid model of social interaction.
Well, two can play at that game.
WARMER IS BETTER — FIGHT THE ICE
I like polar bears – in the zoo. Looking cute.
In the wilderness I like ’em even more, but love increases with distance,
a pretty thousand miles – between them and me – sounds great.
In my neighborhood, I’ m a little bit picky.
Perhaps she’s not so daft.
There is a difference between a windmill and a wind turbine (the green side of my family become a little agitated when I refer to their beloved turbines as windmills).
Every single commenter assumed she was talking about wind turbines when she actually, twice, mentioned windmills (the first time coupled with “as icons of renewable energy”) Look, she has a degree (or two) in something, so she certainly knows the difference.
Windmills as such have been around doing useful work for thousands of years, without a doubt they are icons.
Could there be more to this than meets the eye?
An Inquirer says: “…windmills are a welcomed site in many American farm communities. They represent a diversity to income and also a means by which government regulations transfer money from cities to rural communities.”
funded by subsidies up the wazoo. Your tax dollars at work.
At the last count there were 230 campaign groups in the UK fighting to preserve the countryside from ruination by wind turbines. Clearly these academics have no idea of what goes on in the real world.
Mike McMillan says: ”
Alan Simpson says: May 29, 2010 at 7:05 am
. . . I do marvel at her ability to produce a paper whilst her head is stuck so firmly up her behind and with one of her feet wedged in her mouth.
I suggest…
“. . . whilst WITH her head is stuck so firmly up her behind and with one of her feet wedged in her mouth.”
I prefer the more concise: “…whilst suffering from both hoof-in-mouth disease and proctocraniosis.”
They will try a new tactic….the Deepwater Horizon incident will generate endless footage of oil-sodden pelicans, grebes, marshes etc.
The AGW crowd has been stung so hard & so often by their idiotic claims, I expect them to shift PR focus away from natural calamities and towards the environmental risks of fossil fuels. Watch for this in a big way.
I don’t know if it has sunk into this group that they have largely lost the belief and support of the international mainstream public, and they are so intellectual incestuous (just read posts on RealClimate!) that they may never realize this. What a miserable lot….
Henry chance says:
May 29, 2010 at 8:48 am
“The Prairie chicken population is down 80% and going extinct… The sounds, fighting and mating activities just do not happen around the turbines. Maybe a new Pickens Chickens will evolve and conduct a wind turbine compatible mating dance.”
Pickens Chickens – good one! But a much more widespread and insidious threat to these and many other bird species is that other great ‘green’ idea, biofuels. Not just ethanol which puts more pressure on marginal farmlands once left for habitat but also other fuels like ‘switch grass.’ They claim they can reduce this problem by not harvesting these fuels in nesting season but conveniently forget about the rest of the year when these areas provide habitat for both resident and migratory bird species.
I see the whole biofuel thing, everywhere, like the proverbial ‘plague of locusts’ stripping the land. Very, very stupid and desctructive idea.
But green is ungreen in this Orwellian project.
Al Gore’s Holy Hologram says:
May 29, 2010 at 7:21 am :
“And because of the media’s cuddly image of the dangerous beast, in 2009 a German woman visiting the zoo decided it would be fun to enter the polar bear sanctuary and was viciously mauled. Had she not been rescued she would have been dinner. Idiot media.”
Another revealing tangent on this story is that when Knut grew out of his cute stage, attendance at that zoo to see him dropped off like a stone. Last I heard they were trying to find a new home for the homely teenager because of the costs of feeding him but that was a problem because all the zoos have more than enough polar bears already… because they are so rare, apparently.
If anyone has an update on Knut’s whereabouts that would be interesting.
Windmills are not just expensive non generators , except on rare occasions, but I recall somewhere on WUWT reading an analysis based on German figures, that because of the inefficiences of ramping up & down the conventional plant so as to utilise the varying wind output, no CO2 is saved anyway – not that that worries me but even on warmistas own terms is stupid.
And that’s before the CO2 emmitted in construction, including transmission lines, and the negative environmental impacts – noise, bird slicing, visual impact (for those who don’t like to see them). Wind turbines for other than off grid supply to isolated buildings, with battery storage, are a complete disaster. And will remain so until we have cheap and effective electricity storage?
I explain this to those who will listen, and others do too I expect, so iconic windmill pictures may not help the CAGW religion I hope!
inspirational approach to a climate change message which is inherently difficult to visualize.
Might I suggest a satellite photo of the now-melted polar ice-cap? Oh, but that was just predicted, it didn’t happen. OK, how about one of the islands of Tuvalu half-drowned by the rising sea? Oh, that’s been long predicted and has never happened… that’s right. I can see what Dr. Manzo means, global warming is very hard to visualize. It’s hard to see it at all.
I think we need to worry about Kate only when she drops the Pilates teaching; just like Polly Higgins dropped the eco doormat business when she achieved eco stardom with Moonbat and the Club Of Rome. She’s a small fry for now. You don’t even find her monologuing on youtube yet.
In the interests of helping, fairness, etc., I have come up with what I feel is the perfect icon for them, along with a caption:
“Now, what can we do to get you into this Alarmobile today”? She’s a beaut, aint she?
(hope I got the html right).
ummm, of course the warmists haven’t tried the truth yet …
As time goes on, the real truth is now getting harder to ignore, it was all a scam.